Chapter 1328: The Stage on Sky Arena
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
After the individual competitions, Happy temporarily held a 3-2 lead. But Wang Jiexi's performance during the group arena had completely changed the atmosphere of the entire stadium. Even if Team Tiny Herb had a 5-0 lead, the fans might not be as excited as they were now.
This kind of atmosphere once again put Chen Guo in a bad mood.
Clearly, Happy was still in the lead, and clearly, the team competition had yet to be played, but the fans of Tiny Herb looked as though they had already won the final victorymatch.
Was this because of Wang Jiexi?
Looking at the Tiny Herb fans around her, Chen Guo noticed that their gazes were indeed fixated on one point - their team's captain, Wang Jiexi. Because Wang Jiexi had appeared in the group arena, and because Wang Jiexi would definitely appear in the team competition, they immediately had a different level of confidence in their team. To Chen Guo, this was a kind of blind faith. Tiny Herb performed very well during the group arena, but it wasn't certain how strong their performance would be during the team competition.
With such a ruckus in the crowd, the downside was that it filled the entire break between the individual rounds and the group competition, making it extremely difficult for Team Happy's members to communicate. If this was always the case, it would almost be a necessity for the teams to have a seperate room to prepare in.
"These guys are acting like they've already won, we need to make them shut up!" Fang Rui expressed, with everyone understanding what he was referring to.
"There's no need to be influenced by the atmosphere, think about how calm we were when playing at Tyranny's home stadium," Ye Xiu said.
"Do you have to say these kinds of things on our behalf?" Chen Guo said.
"It's an objective matter of fact! Isn't it the same no matter who says it?" Ye Xiu asked.
"But now that you say that, there's no motivation for anyone to learn. If you don't believe me, just ask them," Chen Guo said.
"None at all," Fang Rui replied.
"Haha," Tang Rou laughed.
"Steamed Bun you shut up!" Seeing that Steamed Bun was about to say something, Chen Guo hurriedly stopped him.
"Alright then, since everyone is so unhappy about their arrogance, let's strike them a ruthless blow during the team competition! We'll focus on Wang Jiexi," Ye Xiu replied.
"Have you also lost all your rationality!" Chen Guo yelled.
At this moment, Qiao Yifan meekly raised his hand and asked, "When we were preparing for this round, didn't we practice to focus on Wang Jiexi in the first place?"
"Ah?" Chen Guo was startled and realized that she had been tricked once again…...
"Let's get ready to go onstage!" Ye Xiu called.
Team Happy's away game against Team Tiny Herb had finally reached the deciding tiebreaker round. The participants in the team competition walked onto the stage in succession.
Team Happy: Ye Xiu, Su Mucheng, Fang Rui, Tang Rou, An Wenyi, Qiao Yifan.
Team Tiny Herb: Wang Jiexi, Xu Bin, Gao Yingjie, Liu Xiaobie, Yuan Baiqing, Liang Fang.
"Ah, it seems that the lineup for both teams haven't changed very much, it's still the usual lineup for the team competition," commentator Pan Lin explained after seeing the list of names for both teams.
"Happy did make one change, Tang Rou is part of the original lineup, while Qiao Yifan is the sixth player," Li Yibo replied.
"This should indicate that they want to play a more aggressive style!" Pan Lin replied.
"It does seem to be the case," Li Yibo nodded his head.
"Hahaha, playing an aggressive style in their away game, how bold," Ruan Cheng laughed, but anyone could hear the mockery in his laughter, looking down on Happy for not knowing their own limits.
"On the side of Team Tiny Herb, Yuan Baiqing is playing his Cleric, Aweto, this should also mean that they want to play a more aggressive game!" Pan Lin said. Team Tiny Herb's healer was very unique, their player could play two different characters and could choose to use either the Cleric or the Paladin in different competitions, and from this decision, one could roughly tell what Tiny Herb wanted to do in the team battle.
"Tiny Herb is playing a home game, there's no reason for them to focus on defense." Ruan Cheng replied.
"Yes, it looks like this is going to be a very intense fight. I'm looking forward to it," Pan Lin said.
While the commentators were discussing, the players had already exchanged greetings, entered the player booths, and the timer was ticking down to the start of the team competition.
"Let's see what map Tiny Herb has picked for the team battle," Pan Lin remarked.
"Sky Arena!" Li Yibo was momentarily stunned when he saw the map that the players eventually loaded into.
"Selecting this map during the team battle... is really very rare!" Pan Lin was also shocked.
Sky Arena was a map that could be considered extremely simple for use in the team battle. The only change in terrain in the whole map were the stairs. At the outermost regions of the map were terraces that looked down on the stage from above, in the middle was the stage itself, which in turn was surrounded by steps.
"This map... there shouldn't be too many complex ways to use the map features strategically," Li Yibo said.
"Would Tiny Herb have put any special effort into researching how to use the height difference from the steps?" Pan Lin said.
"This..." Li Yibo searched his mind for the details of Tiny Herb's past matches, but for a while couldn't give a definite answer.
"It seems that Tiny Herb has been very thorough in their aggressive stance!" Ruan Cheng said.
"Let's take a look and see how they're going to play aggressively," Li Yibo said, obviously favouring Ruan Cheng's opinion in this case.
Very quickly, the characters from both sides finished loading in, each standing at opposite ends of the arena. Because of the high stage in the center of the map, the two teams couldn't see each other, but in reality, they were more or less at an equal distance from the stage, a special feature of the team battle.
"Sky Arena, hm, why don't we just go on the stage and determine the winner?" Ye Xiu asked in the global channel, but none of Happy's characters made any immediate moves.
"Or how about you just come up, Old Wang, and the two of us can fight it out, whoever loses will just have their whole team GG?" Seeing that there was no response from the other side, Ye Xiu provoked them once again.
Team Tiny Herb still had no reaction, but the entire stadium was already in uproar because of Ye Xiu's unbridled arrogance.
"I think I'm beginning to understand the hate that Tyranny has for him," Tang Rou said to the others with her. Losing three times in a row to Ye Xiu and Excellent Era was still bearable, but the crux of the issue was that they still lost after all the provocation and ridicule, making it truly unbearable. This kind of unbridled arrogance was something that was usually displayed by the villain, and afterwards, the hero would go and defeat him, slapping his face. But now, the hero couldn't win, instead losing to this kind of villain, how disgusted would the viewers be? And on top of that, this had happened for three years straight, Team Tyranny's hatred was indeed very scientific.
It looked as if the Team Tiny Herb fans in the crowd were already going insane, but the players in the field looked pretty calm, with no one bothering to respond in the global channel. Instead, the characters from Team Tiny Herb all followed their established paths and advanced tactically.
"It can't be that you want me to let you have the first move?" Ye Xiu was still talking.
"That's enough, what's the point of talking so much rubbish?" Wang Jiexi replied at long last, disapproving of Ye Xiu's trash talk.
At this time, Ye Xiu sent a "sigh of relief" emoticon and said, "And here I thought that all of you weren't here!"
"We're here!" Wang Jiexi once again replied and informed him. At this time, Tiny Herb's five players had already appeared at the edge of the stage, looking down from above and meeting Team Happy's five players face-to-face.
"No one move, let them come down here!" Ye Xiu simply issued his orders in the global channel.
Tiny Herb didn't hesitate and immediately charging down the flight of stairs from the stage.
"Damn, they really came, let's retreat!" Ye Xiu once again shouted in the global channel.
As such, Happy's characters started to turn around and ascend the stairs to the viewing terraces behind them, and the team that occupied the high ground abruptly changed again.
"Let's open fire!" As Ye Xiu issued his command, Su Mucheng's Dancing Rain launched the first attack of the match.
The artillery shells spat tongues of flame as they flew, but Tiny Herb's five members all scattered, with none of them being hit by the attack. But by their team composition, Team Tiny Herb didn't have any long-ranged attackers, with no one being able to directly engage in a firefight with a Launcher. Team Happy, who were now occupying the high ground, seemed to be in a superior position at the moment.
"Possessing the high ground means having a definite advantage. If we were to use control of the high ground as the deciding factor in victory, then this map could be considered very complex. Each set of stairs has many layers, and the map is filled with them, so to make use of the high ground requires awareness of the details of the entire map, unlike many other maps where controlling one focal point means establishing an absolute advantage," Li Yibo began discussing the current circumstances in the match.
'That's true, for now, Happy has the height advantage, but looking at the map, Tiny Herb could just change their position and climb to the same height as Happy," Pan Lin replied.
"So in this map, the battles that occur won't be the vertical battles centered around the stairs, but instead horizontal battles," Li Yibo said.
"You're right, Tiny Herb has already made such arrangements. It seems that they aren't too worried about Happy's temporary control of the high ground."
"The lowground is the inner circle of the map, with a smaller circumference, so it's not possible for Happy to occupy a high position and continually suppress Tiny Herb," Li Yibo said.
"That's right, Tiny Herb has moved around the inner circle, and gained horizontal distance from Happy."
"Yes, with this position, they can more or less start their advance."
"Alright! Tiny Herb is advancing! When the two teams face off horizontally on the stairs, the difference in height created by each step will affect many minor details. Tiny Herb must have done some special practice in this area, which is probably why they picked this map. Tiny Herb has charged up! Fuck!" Li Yibo was excitedly explaining, but at the end, he let his mouth run for a moment, uttering a vulgarity during the broadcast and leaving the broadcasting team completely flustered. It was only one word, and it was too late now that it had been said, so Li Yibo had already covered his mouth.
Tiny Herb charged up the stairs, but Happy's members once again descended the stairs…...
And from the directions given out in Happy's team chat, everyone could see what Happy's intention was.
The stage in the center!
"The stage in the center... If we're talking about controlling the high ground, this would be the most appropriate spot. The difference with the viewing terraces on the edge of the map is that here, the inner circle is the high ground, while the outer circle is the low ground, so if they have the high ground here, Tiny Herb can't just pull away horizontally and create a breakthrough point that way," Pan Lin exclaimed.
"Ah! Tiny Herb has also reacted very quickly, they've immediately turned around and come down."
"The two sides have the same intentions! They're both rushing towards the stage now."
"Is this really going to be where the match is decided? The steps here aren't as numerous as at the viewing platforms, but it's still enough for ten people to battle it out."
"Oh! Without reaching the stage, the two sides have already started attacking!"
"This isn't just a race, the two sides are using their attacks to control and restrict their opponent's movements!"
The two teams finally began to fight in earnest.